AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 8368 - Making the great digital leap forward

In 2009, I became extremely concerned with the concept of Unique Identity for various reasons. Connected with many like minded highly educated people who were all concerned.

On 18th May 2010, I started this Blog to capture anything and everything I came across on the topic. This blog with its million hits is a testament to my concerns about loss of privacy and fear of the ID being misused and possible Criminal activities it could lead to.

In 2017 the Supreme Court of India gave its verdict after one of the longest hearings on any issue. I did my bit and appealed to the Supreme Court Judges too through an On Line Petition.

In 2019 the Aadhaar Legislation has been revised and passed by the two houses of the Parliament of India making it Legal. I am no Legal Eagle so my Opinion carries no weight except with people opposed to the very concept.

In 2019, this Blog now just captures on a Daily Basis list of Articles Published on anything to do with Aadhaar as obtained from Daily Google Searches and nothing more. Cannot burn the midnight candle any longer.

"In Matters of Conscience, the Law of Majority has no place"- Mahatma Gandhi

Ram Krishnaswamy

Sydney, Australia.

Aadhaar

The UIDAI has taken two successive governments in India and the entire world for a ride. It identifies nothing. It is not unique. The entire UID data has never been verified and audited. The UID cannot be used for governance, financial databases or anything. It’s use is the biggest threat to national security since independence. – Anupam Saraph 2018

When I opposed Aadhaar in 2010 , I was called a BJP stooge. In 2016 I am still opposing Aadhaar for the same reasons and I am told I am a Congress die hard. No one wants to see why I oppose Aadhaar as it is too difficult. Plus Aadhaar is FREE so why not get one ? Ram Krishnaswamy

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.-Mahatma Gandhi

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.Mahatma Gandhi

“The invasion of privacy is of no consequence because privacy is not a fundamental right and has no meaning under Article 21. The right to privacy is not a guaranteed under the constitution, because privacy is not a fundamental right.” Article 21 of the Indian constitution refers to the right to life and liberty -Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi

“There is merit in the complaints. You are unwittingly allowing snooping, harassment and commercial exploitation. The information about an individual obtained by the UIDAI while issuing an Aadhaar card shall not be used for any other purpose, save as above, except as may be directed by a court for the purpose of criminal investigation.”-A three judge bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said in an interim order.

Legal scholar Usha Ramanathan describes UID as an inverse of sunshine laws like the Right to Information. While the RTI makes the state transparent to the citizen, the UID does the inverse: it makes the citizen transparent to the state, she says.

Good idea gone bad
I have written earlier that UID/Aadhaar was a poorly designed, unreliable and expensive solution to the really good idea of providing national identification for over a billion Indians. My petition contends that UID in its current form violates the right to privacy of a citizen, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. This is because sensitive biometric and demographic information of citizens are with enrolment agencies, registrars and sub-registrars who have no legal liability for any misuse of this data. This petition has opened up the larger discussion on privacy rights for Indians. The current Article 21 interpretation by the Supreme Court was done decades ago, before the advent of internet and today’s technology and all the new privacy challenges that have arisen as a consequence.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP Rajya Sabha

“What is Aadhaar? There is enormous confusion. That Aadhaar will identify people who are entitled for subsidy. No. Aadhaar doesn’t determine who is eligible and who isn’t,” Jairam Ramesh

But Aadhaar has been mythologised during the previous government by its creators into some technology super force that will transform governance in a miraculous manner. I even read an article recently that compared Aadhaar to some revolution and quoted a 1930s historian, Will Durant.Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha MP

“I know you will say that it is not mandatory. But, it is compulsorily mandatorily voluntary,” Jairam Ramesh, Rajya Saba April 2017.

August 24, 2017: The nine-judge Constitution Bench rules that right to privacy is “intrinsic to life and liberty”and is inherently protected under the various fundamental freedoms enshrined under Part III of the Indian Constitution

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the World; indeed it's the only thing that ever has"

“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” -Edward Snowden

In the Supreme Court, Meenakshi Arora, one of the senior counsel in the case, compared it to living under a general, perpetual, nation-wide criminal warrant.

Had never thought of it that way, but living in the Aadhaar universe is like living in a prison. All of us are treated like criminals with barely any rights or recourse and gatekeepers have absolute power on you and your life.

Announcing the launch of the # BreakAadhaarChainscampaign, culminating with events in multiple cities on 12th Jan. This is the last opportunity to make your voice heard before the Supreme Court hearings start on 17th Jan 2018. In collaboration with @no2uidand@rozi_roti.

UIDAI's security seems to be founded on four time tested pillars of security idiocy

1) Denial

2) Issue fiats and point finger

3) Shoot messenger

4) Bury head in sand.

God Save India

Monday, July 27, 2015

8368 - Making the great digital leap forward

Making the great digital leap forward

SUMIT MAZUMDER

Future call Digital transformation holds the key

The Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile trinity along with the e-commerce wave will fuel the innovation we need

Most social transformations occur on the pretext of a massive revolution, be it the industrial revolution or the digital revolution. Riding on the backbone of Digital India, the Union government is committed to transforming India into a digitally empowered, knowledge-based, inclusive society.

The Digital India vision has placed technology at the core of our lives. Speedy implementation of the National Fibre Optic Network will enable more rural communities to benefit from the ecosystem of services that can make governance more effective.

The trinity of Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM) points towards a mobile-first, cloud-first India. The shift from e-governance to m-governance will help India leapfrog to the next level.

Going forward, the focus on new and emerging technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet of Everything (IoE) will help India transform into a land of smart cities. One of the relatively recent additions to the ICT space — e-commerce — is fuelling a new wave of innovation. The collective set of developments in the ICT arena will help India march along the road to development.

Digital India launch took off with the promise of ₹4.5 trillion investments and 1.8 million jobs. This is a time for new initiatives, new mindsets, new processes and new partnerships.

Towards digitalising

A few suggestions may help to chart out the road to Digital India.

First, the identification of successful pilot projects by the public and private sectors must be done as best practices in the ICT space across the country. The scaling up and rollout of these projects will provide a fillip to Digital India.

Second, given India’s size and demographics, providing digital reach to the people at the right price is one of the most piquant issues we face. Bringing every citizen on the digital backbone will increase empowerment and inclusion. Reaching out to the 2.5 lakh villages as envisaged in the plan will require intent, innovation and investment. Increasing the pace of rural penetration, internet and broadband penetration, and adoption of the mobile in the socially relevant services of education, healthcare, banking and financial services along with m-governance will drive India a long way.

Third, it is crucial to achieve digital literacy for all citizens. There is a need to create a common definition of digital literacy, identify metrics and set clear targets and specific milestones in order to develop a digital workforce.

There has to be focus on content creation, awareness and distribution. The public services must be digitised so that citizens have easy access. It is important to support the self-employed and unorganised sector, as well as public-private partnership.

Fourth, Aadhaar will play a crucial role in Digital India. In order to leverage its true potential, the government must enable policy frameworks to streamline usage of Aadhaar, generate awareness on Aadhaar-based services, enable innovations to increase uptake of Aadhaar services and applications, and stress upon the adoption of Aadhaar services.

Developing business models

Fifth, tackling structural issues and developing business models for Digital India is important. The technology projects should be driven on an outcome-based approach, the adoption of latest technology should be prioritised, and there should be optimised usage of existing resources and a mechanism to share ideas. Innovation and inclusiveness should be encouraged.

Sixth, strong demand-side fundamentals comprising a burgeoning, upwardly mobile middle-class, high disposable incomes and the evolution of an online marketplace model bode favourably for the growth of the e-commerce sector in India, which is estimated to reach $24 billion in 2015 and scale $100 billion before 2020.

The governments, both at the Centre and the State levels, should work out favourable taxation policies and regulatory frameworks, and an ICT infrastructure conducive to attract investments.

India’s growth in the years ahead will be dependent on the rate at which we transform digitally. Both, the government as well as the industry will have to play a key role in the transformation process as the nature of the technology is disruptive and high level innovation is required in the path ahead.

The writer is the president of CII